Congregation 2011
More than 10,000 awards ranging from PhDs to associate degrees will be conferred on CityU students at the 2011 Congregation from 8–17 November at Chan Tai Ho Multi-purpose Hall. In addition, four distinguished persons will receive honorary doctoral degrees on 8 November in recognition of their significant contributions to education and the well-being of society. They are Dr Lien Chan, Honorary Chairman of the Kuomintang, Professor John Forbes Nash, Jr, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, The Hon Jasper Tsang Yok-sing, President of the Legislative Council (Legco) of the HKSAR, and Professor Xu Kuangdi, Honorary Chairman of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Distinguished lectures
Professor Xu Kuangdi, Honorary Chairman of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, will give a talk titled “Advances in science and technology boost green development” on 7 November in the Connie Fan Multi-media Conference Room, as part of the City University Distinguished Lectures Series. In his talk, Professor Xu, who won the Prize for Scientific and Technological Progress of the Ho Leung Ho Lee Foundation in China in 2007, will address issues related to reducing global carbon emissions, saving energy, renewable energy sources and a low-carbon, energy-saving lifestyle. Professor John F Nash, Jr, the 1994 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences and a legend in the field of game theory, will present his current research on contemporary topics later on the same day, at the Wei Hing Theatre and as part of the same lecture series.

President’s lecture series
Professor Yan Houmin, Chair Professor and Head of the Department of Management Sciences at CityU, will give the next talk in the President’s Lecture Series: Excellence in Academia on 3 November. Using a game theoretic approach, he will discuss how contracts can be designed, evaluated and classified based on robust measures.

CityU-ASU alliance
A colloquium to launch the flexible systems alliance between CityU and Arizona State University (ASU) on 2 November will highlight advances in large-area flexible electronics over the last decade and the myriad opportunities for application in industry. Dr Johnny Ho Chung-yin, Assistant Professor in CityU’s Department of Physics and Materials Science, and Professor David Allee, Professor of Electronic Engineering at ASU, will give talks, and Professor Gregory Raupp, Vice-President (Research and Technology) and Dean of Graduate Studies at CityU, will give the introductory address.

Staff donations
The annual campaign conducted by the Development Office to raise funds through the Staff Giving Club (SGC) will get underway at the end of November. A number of activities are planned, including the dispatch of a promotional leaflet detailing updates on staff giving and sharing from staff donors and SGC ambassadors; a specially commissioned stationery clip to recognise staff contributions; various catering coupons; a forum for SGC ambassadors on 9 November to discuss strategies for promotion; and video sharing by a staff member to be broadcast on the SGC website. As of August 2011, over HK$9.2 million (including matching grants) has been generated through the donations of more than 2,396 staff members.

Kudos
Dr Alan Chan Hoi-shou, Associate Professor in the Department of Systems Engineering and Engineering Management, has been appointed Vice Chairman of the Occupational Safety and Health Council for a period of two years starting 22 August, 2011.

He Zhe, a BEngIE student in the Department of Electrical Engineering, and Zhang Niantong and Zhang Hao, BSCCS students in the Department of Computer Science (CS), were named the first runners-up in the 2011 Schneider Electric Energy Efficiency Cup with their project “Smart Phone Lift”. The competition was launched by Schneider Electric in 2009 and the CityU team was supervised by Dr Jason Xue Chun, Assistant Professor in CS.

The video project CITY #3721 by Lam Ho-tak, a student of animation and digital imaging in the School of Creative Media, won in the Live Action category of the Adobe Design Achievement Awards 2011. His video uses time-lapse video designed to let an audience see how cities around the world are becoming more homogenous.

A PhD student from the Department of Electronic Engineering (EE), Wang Huai, under the supervision of EE’s Professor Henry Chung Shu-hung, won first prize in the IEEE Region 10 Student Paper Contest (Postgraduate Category) for his paper “Novel concepts of high voltage DC-DC power conversions for energy savings in modern public transport”. IEEE Region 10 Student Paper Contest is organised by the IEEE Hong Kong Section annually to encourage IEEE student members in Hong Kong to apply their engineering knowledge to research projects in electrical and electronic engineering.